Defender of the hockey club "

\! Therefore, I thought a lot about what would happen next in my career, but from that moment I decided that I would leave Donbass and would not continue to play in the Ukrainian Hockey League until Andrey Deniskin was removed and expelled from the league, ”.

The incident occurred on September 26 during the match " Deniskin was sent off until the end of the match for racist gestures against the black hockey player of Donbass Smerek: the Ukrainian imitated eating a banana. The behavior of the Ukrainian forward was condemned by the new head of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Luc Tardiff.

During the match of the Ukrainian Hockey League, Kremenchuk forward Andriy Deniskin trolled a black player from the opposing team, showing him how to eat a banana.

After the match, Deniskin on Instagram publicly apologized for his act.

pic. twitter. com / eoLUAj9kA1 - glavnoe. ua (@glavnoe_ua) September 28, 2021 Meanwhile, Deniskin said he regrets his act.

" On emotions after the fight, I made this ugly gesture, but at that moment I did not even have any racist intentions. Only after he realized that he could offend Jaelen with his thoughtless action, " I respect all people regardless of their race or nationality. I am very sorry about what happened, because I treat all people equally, "